Whitefield acted wisely in thus submitting his accounts to official auditors. It was the only way to silence the falsehoods of his enemies. His friends, also, were entitled to such an audit, and to such a magisterial declaration.
After all his efforts, Whitefield was still in debt to the amount of £529 5s. 1¼d.; and he now, with a confessedly honest front, appealed to his friends, in America and England, to defray the debt, and told them that any one wishing to contribute might send their gifts “to Mr. Branson, iron merchant, in Philadelphia; the Rev. Mr. Smith, in Charleston; Mr. John Smith, merchant, in Boston; the Rev. Mr. Shutlift, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire; the Rev. Mr. Pemberton, in New York; Mr. James Habersham,[133] merchant, in Savannah; Gabriel Harris, Esq., in Gloucester; Mr. James Smith, at St. Philip’s Plain, in Bristol; Mr. John Kennedy, at Exon; Mr. Jonathan Houlliere, in Queen Street, Upper Moorfields; and Mr. William Strahan, printer, in Wine Office Court, Fleet Street.”
After all this, no one could reasonably dispute the existence of the Orphan House, or Whitefield’s honesty; but it might be asked, had the £5,511 17s. 9¼d. been well expended? An answer to this question will be found in the followingtestimony, given by one of Whitefield’s enemies,—a gentleman who had made a tour through most of America, and, in his travels, visited the Orphan House, in 1743. After describing a magnificent vista, of nearly three miles’ length, cut through the pine groves between Wormsloe and Bethesda, the gentleman observes:—
“It gave me much satisfaction to have an opportunity to see Mr. Whitefield’s Orphan House, as the design had made such a noise in Europe, and the very being of it was so much doubted everywhere, that, even no farther from it than New England, affidavits were made to the contrary.
“It is a square building of very large dimensions, the foundations of which are brick, with chimneys of the same; the rest of the superstructure is of wood. The whole is laid out in a neat and elegant manner. A kind of piazza surrounds it, which is a very pleasing retreat in the summer. The hall and all the apartments are very commodious, and prettily furnished. The garden, which is very extensive, and well kept, is one of the best I ever saw in America; and you may discover in it plants and fruits of almost every climate and kind. The outhouses are convenient; and the plantation will soon surpass almost anything in the country.
“We were received by Mr. Barber, a Dissenting minister, in a genteel and friendly manner. They were at dinner when we arrived, the whole family at one table; and never was there a more orderly, pretty sight. If I recollect aright, besides Mr. Barber, the schoolmaster, and some women, there were near forty young persons of both sexes, dressed very neatly and decently. After dinner, they retired, the boys to school, the girls to their spinning and knitting. I was told, their vacant hours were employed in the garden, and in plantation work.
“Prepossessed with a bad opinion of the institution, I made all the enquiries I could, and, in short, became a convert to the design, which seems very conducive to the good of the infant colony. Whatever opinion I may have of the absurdity of some of their religious notions, tenets, and practices, yet, so far as they conduce to inculcate sobriety, industry, and frugality, they deserve encouragement from all well-wishers of the country, I could not here perceive anything of that spirit of uncharitableness and enthusiastic bigotry, for which their leader is so famed, and of which I heard shocking instances all over America.”
The writer then proceeds to speak of the road which Whitefield made from the Orphan House to Savannah,—a “road cut through the woods, and which had a hundred curiosities to delight the attentive traveller.” He describes Savannah; speaks of the air as “pure and serene;” and concludes by deploring the ingratitude, ignorance, oppositionto government, and the “cursed spirit of dissension amongst” the people,which had nearly ruined the colony.[134]
So much from an unfriendly visitor. What says the founder? In the “Further Account of God’s Dealings” with him, published in 1747, there is a long letter, written only five days after the date of the affidavits just mentioned. The following is an extract from it:—
“Bethesda, in Georgia, March 21st, 1746.